The role of the school leader in the inclusion of migrant families and students

Abstract

Social, political and economic upheavals, coupled with natural disasters, are recurring, major causes of the displacement of people worldwide. Hosting nations are constantly seeking ways and means to meet the diverse needs of migrants, immigrants, refugees and asylum seekers, with schools incessantly being urged to play a major role in the inclusion of migrant students in all aspects of school life. The study highlights the strategies being employed by a Maltese school leader in his quest to fulfil his noble mission of effectively including all students, irrespective of background of origin. The study also seeks to develop and expand the role of the school leader towards meeting the needs of migrant students and their families within the school set-up and beyond. It also seeks to engage readers in a critical and constructive discussion surrounding the effective inclusion of migrant students in schools and society. It transpired that the school leader‘s work can be summarised under four categories: 1) reconceptualising the meaning of diversity 2) promoting an inclusive school culture, 3) strengthening of language support and 4) the extension of school relationships beyond school boundaries.

Keywords

Leadership inclusion schools migrant education

Political, social and economic upheavals, together with natural disasters, are major factors driving the forced displacement of people globally. Among the huge challenges migrant families face is the need for quick adaptive mechanisms facilitating entry into the new host societies and the navigation of one‘s own identity through endless bureaucratic labyrinths. The migration experience has a profound impact on how individuals are perceived by the host society, particularly with regard to the roles and social expectations related to gender, culture and traditions. Most importantly, however, there is a marked impact on how the person ultimately views him or herself in terms of his/her contribution to the host society.

As a multifaceted and social phenomenon, the process of migration has become increasingly politicised, with inadequate healthcare topping priority lists. Data suggests that infectious diseases, accidents, injuries and violent experiences have a devastating effect on migrant groups, compared to long-settled populations in the European Union (IOM, 2020).

The year 2019 saw the translocation of 80 million people, 40% being children under the age of 18 and therefore in need of primary care and education (UNHCR, 2020). Forcibly displaced people also “transport cultural material and knowledge across national boundaries” (Goddard, 2015: 3). This is often the cause of rising tensions, leaving locals and the “others” to contend with potential solutions. Schools are always at the centre of this cultural intersectionality, with school-age migrant populations attracting increased interest to policymakers in resettling countries. Migrant children from all corners of the globe add to an increasingly ethnically, culturally and linguistically diverse student population in today‘s classrooms and schools (Spring, 2018). The issue of increased diversity in different aspects of human interaction has long been a salient feature in research studies (Stahl et al., 2010), with the majority of studies focusing on the correlation between diverse class populations and students’ academic outcomes (Konan et al., 2010).

However, when it comes to migrant students, the challenges are not only academic but also verge on health, psychological, cultural and socioeconomic needs (Abubakar et al., 2018; Anderson and Blinder, 2015; Preibisch and Hennebry, 2011; Schim and Doorenbos, 2010).

Moreover, migrant students experience communication difficulties in the dominant language and therefore teachers need to have at least basic knowledge about the geographical and cultural origin of their students. It would also be desirable to have appropriate knowledge of the migration trajectories as well as the factors behind migration, which can have repercussions on learning (Bianco and Ortiz Cobo, 2019). Most often, students from migrant backgrounds experience discontinuities in their studies; the consequences being marked difficulties in adapting to the new school system (Unicef connect, 2015) which lead to an increased absenteeism rate and school dropouts. Furthermore, students from war afflicted countries have a higher risk of developing mental conditions such as post-traumatic stress, depression and anxiety disorders. These conditions have negative effects on learning, resulting in poor school performance, school suspension, reading difficulties and low marks (UNHCR, 2013). Insufficient school resources, lack of pedagogical training to work with migrant children, language barriers, psychosocial issues, as well as limited complimentary teaching classes, are among the most common challenges faced by migrant children in need of education (UNHCR, 2019).

Schools are the ideal settings to foster inclusive environments and facilitate the integration of students from migratory backgrounds, while their families strive to understand the host culture and embark on a resettlement process (Sidhu and Taylor, 2012). However, such processes are fraught with insecurities and anxieties which manifest among students and which school leaders need to manage effectively. The purpose of this study is to highlight leadership efforts to include migrant students and their families in a secondary school in Malta.

Malta, a tiny island in the Mediterranean has, for the past 15 years, seen an upsurge in irregular immigration both from the Horn of Africa and from mainland Europe. This large-scale immigration evoked unprecedented concern among the Maltese population, prompting many school leaders to reflect upon and develop leadership practices that would kindle inclusive learning environments, serving all children under their care (Bezzina and Vassallo, 2019).

Theoretical underpinnings

The increasing diversity in our schools has urged school leaders to step up efforts in reconsidering practices that require them to foster innovative and inclusive educational environments (Khalifa et al., 2016). Such practices include critical self-reflection (Cherkowski and Ragoonaden, 2016), awareness of internal and external influences surrounding the school milieu (Ghania, 2014) and an unwavering focus on improving students’ educational experiences (Day et al., 2016). Additionally, school leaders are entrusted with connecting and adapting schools to their surrounding environments. As Hargreaves et al. (2008) aptly point out, school leaders are being pressured to lead both within and beyond the school, thus shaping the environment that influences their own work with students. School leaders play a vital role in strengthening the ties between school staff and the communities that surround them. Research shows that successful school leaders demonstrate high engagement with parents and students, thereby enjoying trust and mutual respect (Macbeath et al., 2018). In rapidly changing societies, the high expectations placed on schools and the ways to achieve them are at times ambiguous. In increasingly globalised economies, schools are being faced with the onus of preparing students to embrace learning opportunities whilst confronted with challenges such as changing demographic patterns, increased migration, new technologies and diverse family structures. As a result of these challenges, school leaders are constantly required o forge new roles to deal effectively with the processes and implications of change.

Fostering new meanings about diversity

Riehl (2000) noted that constructing new meanings within and outside the school environment revolves around stakeholders’ perceptions and beliefs about the school. She notes that “real organisational change occurs not simply when technical changes in structure and process are undertaken, but when persons inside and outside of the school construct new understandings about what the change means” (p. 60). It is clear that the continuous changes in cultural compositions and ethnic groupings in schools elicit resistance both from within schools and from the outside community, possibly motivated by stereotypical or racist dispositions. This is further accentuated by the migrants’ unique cultural and religious practices and expressions which differ significantly from those of the host societyAdditionally, the past experiences with interrupted schooling inadvertently limits migrant students’ participation in school activities (Hos, 2016). These stereotypical attitudes, driven by deficit models, frequently guide pedagogical and curricular decisions schools make, further perpetuating existing inequalities within society (Blanchard and Muller, 2015; Cherng and Liu, 2017). School leaders are in a privileged position to promote understanding and appreciation of diversity by preparing all students to navigate through an increasingly diverse society (Bruner, 2008; Cooper et al., 2011).

Specifically, ten Bruggencate et al. (2012) suggested that school leaders can influence how school staff construct meaning through a variety of daily school activities. For example, school leaders can engage in fostering new meanings about diversity by capitalising on school meetings, prize days and parents’ days. They can rethink school events and practices by first looking “through the lenses of others” (Vassallo, 2016: 73) offered by the cultural groups residing in the school. For different cultural groups to assimilate new meanings, a lengthy engagement process is required, which gives “psychological freedom” to co-create new meanings. Such a process must be carried out in an ambience of respect, honest exchange and constructive discussion which keeps the interest of the different groups firmly in focus (MEDE, 2012).

Promoting inclusive school cultures

Through their initiatives and transformative processes, school leaders have a direct influence on classroom instruction through high expectations for student achievement (Day et al., 2016), high presence around the school (Louiset al., 2010), excellent support for staff (Hallinger and Heck, 2010) and strong goal and task orientation (Sebastian and Allensworth, 2012). With student diversity taking so many shapes and forms, the call for inclusion recognises the need for improved inclusionary practices which encompass racial, linguistic and cultural viewpoints. For migrants who bring with them unique cultural practices, languages, educational and psychosocial needs, together with endless traumatic experiences, it is essential that host nations spare no efforts at designing school programmes which are tailor-made to support inclusion (OECD, 2015). These programmes will also serve the function of enabling equity and social justice within classrooms, i.e. meaningfully including these aspects in carefully designed lesson planning and pedagogical considerationsIn their study on investigating best practices for immigrant students, Magno and Schiff (2010) urged school leaders to create diversity hubs to promote the formation of cultural clubs. The authorsalso suggested the hosting of diversity leadership conferences, organising school assemblies with particular focus on diversity issues, as well as organising discussion groups and lectures with diversity as the central theme. These activities promote and sustain dialimogue within the school community and develop what Freire (1970, 2005) calls critical consciousness - a socio-political educative tool that empowers learners to question the nature of their historical and social situation. This empowerment bridges the intergenerational gap between students and teachers, inducing them to learn, question, reflect and participate in meaning-making.

Strengthening language support

Many migrant children live in countries that do not support their linguistic repertoire, and are therefore faced with the challenge of having to learn a language to which they have never been exposed. Data from UNICEF (2019) reveals that 66% of refugees were living in countries where none of the official languages were spoken in their countries of origin. For children who need to experience schooling, these situations present a severe barrier to educational performance.

When migrant children enrol in schools where their home language is not spoken, they are confronted with the dual challenge of having to learn concepts in a language they do not understand. Learning new languages, along with new concepts, presents a real challenge causing such children to fall behind in their school work. As Crush and Tawodzera (2011) point out, while local students have the advantage of being taught in their mother tongue, migrant students are disadvantaged because they need time to adapt to the new language of instruction.

The Maltese National Curriculum Framework (MEDE, 2012) recognises the implications of Multicultural Education. It stresses that “all schools should be in a position to provide children and their parents with language support in Maltese and English so that they achieve a basic working knowledge of these languages at the earliest possible in order to allow them [migrants] to integrate quickly” (p. 4). It also seeks to “address the needs of learners from diverse social, cultural and linguistic backgrounds including children of refugees and asylum seekers for whom the curriculum should include access to an educational programme which is embedded within an emotionally and psychologically supportive environment that respects their individual circumstances.” (p. 41). The Migrant Learners Unit (MLU) in Malta strives to fulfil these roles and offers an induction course of one year in both Maltese and English Language; the primary scope being to provide migrant students with the “opportunity to obtain the necessary skills and attitudes to be active citizens and to succeed at work and in society” (MEDE, 2014).

Adapting to a new culture while learning Maltese and English is indeed a great challenge. Language learning is an intensely social activity that requires high levels of interaction among peers in order to overcome barriers and fears. The classroom plays a vital part in all this, but learning must extend beyond the four walls of the classroom to include informal engagement with others and the local community. The school leader is aware of the importance of attuning to the needs and motivations of the learners in order to be able to plan the way forward jointly with parents, further enacting the principles of multicultural inclusion. Freire (1972) advocated the use of dialogic methods that build upon the experiences of students to develop a shared critical understanding of language and the world. Hence language development has a key role to play in the processes of social change and transformation as it deals “critically and creatively with reality” (p. 34).

Transforming schools into learning communities

Educating migrant children cannot be left to school personnel alone. Forging new relationships between schools and migrant communities is a strategy which needs to be taken on board. As student populations become more diverse, so does the complexity of the students’ needs. This is juxtaposed against schools that are not entirely equipped to address such needs. Migrant students present several unique and challenging factorsThey have experienced distress due to war and conflict, violence, torture, forced displacement, living in refugee camps with minimal facilities and, notably, lacking formal education. Some have enrolled in public education and, besides language problems, experienced the struggle of acculturation in the host country (Idemudia and Boehnke, 2020). Enhanced collaboration and sharing resources between non-governmental agencies to effectively respond to the multifaceted needs of migrant learners is essential for the creation of learning communities. Building effective learning communities and strengthening working relationships between schools and the various communities represented within the school is vital towards meeting migrant students’ needs (Moon, 2010; Soriano-Ayala, González-Jiménez and Sleeter, 2014).

Therefore, schools and non-governmental organisations (NGOs) need to establish a framework for collaboration to serve the needs of migrant students and their families. Vargas (2013) emphasised that collaboration through empowerment seeks to lift the confidence, energy and agency of another person, self, and the relationship. The better we become at co-powering, the more we grow deeper relationships that develop our power to create positive personal, family and community change. Khalifa et al. (2016) support this notion and elaborate that school leaders who show concern and advocate for community causes gain the trust of even the most distant parents, increase credibility and allow for leadership to be enriched with parental support, involvement, and trust They noted that school leaders who conducted home visits, spoke in special church activities, supported community advocacy, attended student defence hearings, engaged in meaningful discussions on other topics other than education, encouraged mutual advising and sharing of information were perceived by migrant parents as having positive leadership and inclusionary skills. The framework outlined above guided my analysis of findings into providing valuable insights regarding the school leaders’ role and how this influences the effective inclusion of migrant students and their families in schools.

Methodology

As a researcher working in multicultural school environments for the past twenty years, it has become a moral imperative to continue sustaining cohesive school cultures that effectively include migrant students within all aspects of school life. Being brought up in a Catholic family and educated in Maltese Catholic schools, has inculcated in me strong moral principles of love, compassion and solidarity with others, and this perhaps explains my inner drive to promote school environments based on justice and equity. Its downside, however, lies in the fact that school staff and students were composed of predominantly white, catholic, middle class background with little or no space for diversity.

Moreover, throughout my formative years as an educator, I had never been exposed to pedagogical processes thatencompass different cultural perspectives. This has had a somewhat debilitating effect on me as an educator and also as a senior management team member in a multicultural school.

Hence, the study presented me with the challenge of reflecting on my work, as assistant head of school, by looking through different lenses, also utilising the perspectives offered by the school leader (in the study) during his daily leadership activities.

The study focuses on the school leader‘s efforts to include migrant students and their families as part of a whole-school approach towards supporting the educational experiences of migrant students. The school leader earned his bachelor‘s degree in primary education and continued studying for aPostgraduate Diploma in Educational Administration and Management. Like the researcher, he comes from a white middle class background. He was educated in local government schools and continued his teaching experiences in the same locality he was born in. This placed him in a position to observe the changes which, throughout the years, characterised local state schools. He started teaching in the mid-‘90 s as a primary education teacher and taught 10 year-olds for a substantial part of his teaching career. During he years as a primary school teacher, he became intrigued as to what are the best teaching methods to teach migrant students. After a number of years teaching in the primary sector, he assumed the position of assistant head. His tenure as assistant head coincided with the large influx of irregular migrants in Malta. Later on, he was promoted to the role of school leader, and this served as a springboard to heighten his interest in migrant education. For the past seven years, he has also been volunteering with a local church organisation which seeks to assist refugees and asylum seekers, organising many fund-raising activities to help support additional tuition services. These differing yet complimentary roles, enacted the school leader, were the ideal springboard for the researcher as he sought to further explore how is the role of the school leader enacted at school. The characteristics displayed by the school leaderprovided the researcher with multiple viewpoints from which to base an analysis on the best strategies to include migrants and refugees in the Maltese educational milieu.

The research questions in the study are: (1) What is the role of the school leader towards the effective inclusion of migrant students in school and (2) How is this role enacted?

Qualitative semi-structured interviews are among the most dominant and widely used data collection methods (Bradford and Cullen, 2012)., allowingthe researcher to explore subjective viewpoints (Flick, 2009) and to gather in-depth accounts of the participants’ experiences whilst responding in their own terms. interviews resembled a ‘flowing conversation‘ with themes developing throughout the interview, taking into account the experiences, meanings and the ‘realities’ of participants’ informed by discourses, assumptions or ideas which exist in wider society (Choak, 2012).

Data collection and analysis

The school leader, the two assistant heads of school and six educators were interviewed for about one hour each in the school setting. A focus group consisting of eight parents from a migrant background was conducted for about 80 min at a local council‘s premises. Both interviews and focus group were audio-recorded and transcribed. The thematic analysis was used to examine themes by identifying, analysing and reporting patterns (themes) in light of the literature review conducted and the research question under investigation.

The principle aim of the research is to examine, in a broader way, how the school leader enacts his role in favour of effective inclusion of migrant students in school. The themes were then analysed in the light of literature review from which four main themes emerged.The thematic analysis approach was used to examine the school leader‘s practices in creating inclusive schools for all studentsIn particular, he was asked to elaborate on how his leadership has been instrumental towards supporting migrant families and their children, how he and his staff construed new meanings about diversity, promoted inclusive school cultures, multicultural activities, and fostered new relationships between schools and migrant communities.

The thematic analysis proved helpful at detecting and identifying factors and variables identified by the participant. Therefore, the school leader‘s interpretations were significant in terms of giving the most appropriate explanations for his own behaviours, actions and thoughts. Moreover, the thematic analysis helped the researcher to understand the current practices employed by the school leader and to examine their impact on the inclusion of migrant students and their families within the school processes and setup. The approach provided the opportunity to code and categorise data into themes.

Findings

The themes discussed in this study are organised around the tasks or practices emerging from the interviews with the school leader, assistant heads, teachers and parents, and which are deemed critical in diverse school settings, (1) reconceptualisation of the meaning of diversity, (2) promotion of an inclusive school culture, (3) strengthening of language support, and (4) the extension of school relationships beyond school boundaries. Looking at Diversity from Different Lenses

As demographics in school populations and communities continue to change, members within these settings struggle to cope with what changes mean to them individually, as well as for the community within and outside the school. The process of struggling has elicited reconstructions of meaning about diversity within the school community and outside.

The school leadership team was prompted to rethink how best to serve the needs of migrant populations and their families. In the words of the school leader:

Twenty years ago, we did not have this vast amount of migrants, and we were not psychologically and pedagogically prepared to face these students. It was also evident that the educational directorate at the time struggled to meet the needs of these children.

This statement underlined the school leader‘s concern at the need to generate expertise towards assisting migrant students with their educational needs. He also felt it is his duty not to be complacent and to be proactive. In fact, anticipating the challenges that the increasingly high numbers of migrant children might present to the mainstream cohort of Maltese parents, he greeted parents with an introductory speech briefly explainingthe ordeals that migrant students experience:

When children come to a new school, they meet new peers and teachers … it is a new experience for all. Nevertheless, the experience of migrant children is often confounded by a different language, an immersion into a completely foreign culture, and, often, a fractured family life. For many, it is total upheaval … just imagine … today you are tending chickens in a wide-open space and within a few weeks, often months, you end up within a small 5 m square classroom full of children, having to sit down and comply with all our expectations.

Some migrant parents demanded “special classes” for their children.This illustrates that migrant parents themselves are unaware of inclusionary practices and tend to support practices that actually limit their children‘s participation at school (Hos, 2016). Other parents, however, tried to reconstruct their mental image of the meaning of diversity, thereby infusing the ‘new realities’ emerging from increased student diversity and also questioning how and in what way were the newly constructed educational experiences beneficial or detrimental to their children‘s social and academic outcomes. This suggested that the school leader actually managed to support migrant parents into looking “from different lenses” (Vassallo, 2016: 73) to continue supporting the inclusion of all children at school. To deal effectively with this emerging reality, the school leader held meetings with parents, reassuring them that the educational quality the school was renowned for was not going to be compromised. The purposeful engagement of his own assistant heads and teachers reinforced the belief that each child, regardless of his/her background, deserved a quality educational experience. He underscored the enriching experiences and benefits that refugee and migrant children bring to the overall atmosphere within the school. He highlighted:

Their cultures, the contribution to the learning processes, are indeed something we should be proud of. They have trusted us to weave their systems of learning into ours. They do see things differently than we [Maltese] do … for example, discipline and gender relationships … all these need to be renegotiated. Nevertheless, they simply love to be here, and we are simply happy to serve them.

From parental responses during the focus group meeting, it was somewhat unclear as to the extent of which different learning strategies were incorporated and enacted at school. Also, parents seemed unaware of ‘negotiated disciplinary practices’ and their assertions were corroborated by views expressed from one of the assistant heads. Hence there seems to be a disparity between the message the school leader is attempting to transmit and the way it is being received by staff members and parents.

An inclusive school environment

From interviews with both assistant heads and educators it transpired that the whole school personnel, including ancillary staff, were committed to creating a warm, positive, embracing, and inclusive learning environment for migrant and refugee students so that they are in an ideal position to actively participate in the learning process. It is the primary duty of school leaders to create those conditions that promote an inclusive school environment where all members experience a sense of belonging. In the school leader‘s own words,

Nowadays, our school is blessed by the contribution of 16 different nationalities. Teachers had the opportunity to adopt more inclusive pedagogies, using, for example, different flags to teach shapes during Mathematics lessons or different versions of ‘Cinderella‘ to read to the class. On other occasions, we celebrated the Muslim Eid and also the Diwali festival … its simply amazing … in one of our parents’ evenings, when children sang “we are the world” we had parents and children from all corners of the world literally crying with joy! It was so unique and special. This is where we really wanted to be at! [his emphasis].

This was echoed by an assertion from one of the assistant heads who stated “we were taught that our norms and social experiences are the way it ‘should be‘ so we tend to react negatively to anything that falls outside our ‘programmed mindset‘ and that is why we need to build inclusive environments”.

The school leader understood that creating an inclusive school environment could not be achieved singlehandedly. He assumed the role of bringing on board not only school personnel but also policymakers and stakeholders. Although recruiting teachers did not fall within his remit, he strived to employ educators trained in multicultural and inclusive education while insisting that his assistants within the administration are qualified and experienced in tackling conflicts arising from multiple viewpoints. He purposefully attended workshops in Malta and abroad focusing on multicultural education, and contributed to the proliferation of multicultural pedagogies by attending and participating in numerous seminars, lectures and workshops organised by the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD). It is clear that the school leader is adamant at supporting programs that help sustaining inclusionary practices (OECD, 2015).

It is also evident that the school leader has high expectations for his students (Day et al., 2016), enjoys a high presence around the school (Louis, Dretzke et al., 2010), provides excellent support for his staff (Hallinger and Heck, 2010) and possesses a strong goal and task orientation (Sebastian and Allensworth, 2012).

Building effective learning communities through positive relationships

Forging positive relationships is essential for creating useful links between the various stakeholders committed to fulfilling the vision and mission of the school. The school leader shoulders the responsibility to navigate skilfully between the different needs and interests of all groups in an ambience of mutual respect, which ultimately benefits the students. The leader in the study served as a role model towards building relationships as he believed that this was “key towards reaching out to all kids, getting to know them and understanding their needs.” This fundamental belief guided his efforts in reaching out to the different communities residing within the school by conducting home visits, accepting wedding invitations, holding barbeques in the schoolyard and inviting community leaders to the decision table.

He lamented, however, at the limited resources his school is allocated to expand an already strong base of volunteers composed of different nationalities, who are willing to dedicate more time towards the welfare of the school and its students. His statement was supported by migrant parents who expressed the wish that special resources would be allocated to continue “building bridges that support planned purposeful engaging experiences”.

The school leaderexpressed his wish to be able to employ a public relations officer or better still a community liaisons officer who would be in charge of forming and linking the various groups together into a productive partnership. He took an active role in forging partnerships with the local council, the parish committee and an NGO..This proved pivotal towards allocating migrants and refugees a number of apartments as part of a new housing scheme. Knowing who was behind this initiative helped refugees and migrants to become more acquainted and conversant with the local system of resource allocation and this had a positive ripple effect on the provision of a number of services such as social assistance, childcare services, and enrolment in academic courses.

Trust is one of the essential factors contributing to a positive school climate. Once trust is established, confidence soars and enables the staff to achieve results beyond expectations and an increased willingness to venture more. A teacher commented, “our head of school is charged with a wide array of responsibilities, including the development of a vision committed to improve the holistic welfare of all students.” Cultivating a climate of trust empowers members of a school community to amplify their school‘s strengths and create environments where learning is facilitated and enhanced. Trust transforms educators into valuable members of the school community who play a significant role in creating a school climate that fosters a student‘s aspirations and achievements (Darling-Hammond et al., 2020). This is vital towards strengthening working relationships between educators and the various communities represented within the school, ultimately benefiting migrant student needs (Moon, 2010; Soriano-Ayala et al., 2014).

Strengthening language support

The school leader lamented about the lack of human and financial resources to create communities of practice which help support language learning.

In his own words:

The major obstacle that we encounter is the language barrier. We need qualified teachers in the area of multicultural education who can understand our communities and create communities of practice, working together as one whole school. An injection of cash is also needed.

This statement was echoed by one of the teachers who stated that they were often required to prepare supplementary material to replace the textbooks, as well as give additional support to migrant students. In order to facilitate communication and learning, teachers stated that they tended to code-switch between Maltese and English.

It is evident that the school leader and his staff cared about including migrant and refugee students and their families in all aspects of school experience, including language development. He believes that the plurality of languages is an advantage and therefore used his knowledge and influence to continue sustaining a nurturing attitude. In his own words:

We are usingthis demographic shift to our advantage, so that Maltese students who are already bilingual (speaking both Maltese and English) can learn another language through interaction with migrant students. Apart from gaining a greater understanding, tolerance and appreciation for other languages and cultures, the students in our school have better academic results than the national average.

It must be pointed out that the school leader seemed unaware of the need to teach students in their mother tongue, this being a vital prerequisite for successful academic performance (Crush and Tawodzera, 2011).

Discussion

Diversity in schools presents both challenges and opportunities (Kostogriz, 2019). School leaders are in an enviable position to influence school climate and culture whereby the stakeholders involved learn to appreciate, understand, value, and respect diversity. In this study, the school leader was critical in fostering new meanings for diversity, both within school boundaries (educators, students and himself), but also beyond school walls (parents, NGOs and communities). The research has shown that effective school leaders adapt to the contexts in which they work, factoring in students’ backgrounds, country of origin, religious adherences and socio-economic status among others. For some parents, the unprecedented demographic shift was perceived as a potential threat to the harmony and academic rigour of the school program. It is through the establishment of trust gained through years of community engagement that the school leader managed to shepherd meaningful dialogue as demographic change unfolded. This premise is consistent with research conducted earlier by Brouwer et al. (2012) who found that “diversity in tenure was positively related to successful outcomes due to the combination of experience of the long-tenured with the openness and new ideas of novices” (p. 350).Though admitting that he was ill-prepared for the exponential increase of refugees and migrants which called for quick thinking, reorganising and restructuring, the school leader used his long-term experience to channel his efforts further, actively participating in initiatives, and engaging long enough to experience their fruitful outcomes. Long term engagement of school leaders in school set ups seems to be more of a rarity. School leaders' turnover interrupts the momentum of change and alienates them from feeling part of their own success. It is imperative that school leaders are given long term opportunities to consolidate trust with educators and community groups, to ensure changes becoming a salient part of the school culture.

Moreover, it seems that national priorities do not always reflect specific school needs and vice versa, and this creates disillusionment among stakeholders. Findings from interviews reveal that educators feel dissatisfied with the educational authorities as they seek to address refugee and migrant students' needs. The involvement of stakeholders, particularly those who work directly with refugee and migrant children, needs to be taken on board and given higher consideration. Only when the culture and organisation of the school are transformed in ways that enable students from diverse, racial and ethnic groups to experience equality status, can we truly believe in the existence of an empowered school culture. It is when the school environment is reformed, in terms of attitudes, beliefs, curricula, programme designs, inclusive pedagogies, assessment and testing procedures, that we can start believing in changing the existing societal inequalities (Banks, 2004).

Minority students such as migrants and refugees can easily be side-lined unless school leaders and educators advocate for their needs. The school leader in the study acknowledges multiculturalism and believes that teachers are most influential on student outcomes because of their daily interaction with them. School leaders require the autonomy to hire educators who are well versed in multiculturalism, critical pedagogy, equity and social justice (Neeleman, 2019). Educators can function as cultural brokers for migrant and refugee students as these students try to navigate the transition from their home country to the host country. The educators' effectiveness in being agentic for refugee and migrant students lies in their competency skills towards understanding the cultural affiliations of the different student groups. If educators possess these competencies, they are likely to create a safe and welcoming school climate for migrant and refugee students that humanises their transition into the new cultural environment (Liggett, 2011). Strengthening school-community relations is imperative to maintaining the involvement of parents and community.

School leaders need to be able to tap into the resources lying within diverse communities such as voluntary associations, businesses, churches and local councils, thereby mitigating against transportation, language and financial barriers that potentially constrain the parents' full participation in their children‘s educational experiences. The school leader in our study took particular activities (prize days and parents’ evenings) away from the school into the parish hall and local council. He acted purposefully and effectively towards the integration of migrant students and families, notwithstanding the time, effort, commitment and resources needed.

For migrant students, the introduction of Maltese and English Language in the curriculum should be gradual, with opportunities to meet their classmates during recreation time, creative games and other activities. They should also have other kids acting as buddies who assist them in their daily activities. Once the migrant children acquire some basic knowledge of Maltese and English, they can fully participate with the other classes. However, this does not need to have a defined timeline but employs a flexible transitory process, genuinely catering for the different needs of the children allowing them to make sure and steady steps, building confidence and self-worth.

Moreover, there needs to be more space for children to communicate in their home language, as this strengthens their cognitive and social skills. It also improves their skills in the school language, aids with critical thinking and problem-solving skills, while also heightening cultural awareness (Bialystok, 2010; Council of Europe, 2014, Cummins, 2010, 2015). Migrant learners need support in basic and functional language learning over and above the teaching that is already provided by the class teachers. This will help them to be included and to participate in mainstream education.

School leaders need to further develop their role as transcultural communicators by inviting parents to share stories, wisdom, and cultural traditions. They need to capitalise on occasions that warrant migrant parents' participation such as children‘s multicultural dramatic activities, community celebrations and major religious events, thus encouraging migrant parents to maintain and share their home language, customs and traditions. Such events need to be further shared with educational stakeholders during professional development sessions so that they, too, can become well-informed advocates for their students.

Efforts needs to be geared at establishing community partnerships with local associations, private companies, local councils and NGOs. Community partnerships have the potential to support and ensure academic achievement. Migrant students often need the extra support that is frequently beyond the capacity of the school. Closer ties between the school and the community can also reap benefits that go beyond the educational setting, amongst which are material, financial and human resources. Community members mutually reap the benefits from maintaining a strong healthy relationship with surrounding schools, thereby preparing the future workforce towards active citizenship and meaningful contribution to society.

Conclusion

Parents of migrant students necessitate support to understand the Maltese educational system and the role it plays in their child‘s education. Policymakers should ensure that educational systems develop curricula with content that can be adapted to different languages, facilitating the educators' ability to develop interventions and programmes that address the language barrier for migrant students. The research community needs to direct its efforts to develop translanguaging pedagogies, thus enabling children to extend the range of languages in their linguistic repertoire. Translanguaging pedagogies also facilitate the interdependency among a student‘s different linguistic resources and enable students to flexibly negotiate meaning and develop more in-depth metalinguistic knowledge. School leaders in diverse contexts need to plan and act purposefully towards engaging the various stakeholders in order to promote a cohesive school culture. Clearly, the school leader in our study was resolute in his core belief of doing “what is best for the children.” A case in point concerns the different views that migrant parents, the SMT and the school leader share in terms of disciplinary processes at school. It is imperative for school leaders take the initiative and design inclusionary disciplinary practices as an inherent part of their role towards supporting the inclusion of migrant students.

Maintaining healthy relationships with staff is a key ingredient in achieving inclusion in a diverse context. Most of the activities rely on the goodwill and volunteerism of the school personnel. The study is intended to provide scholarship for school leaders, who might still be sceptical or wary on the effectivity of inclusionary practices on migrant and refugee learners. Practices such as purposeful hiring, restructuring and reorganising daily routines and procedures, taking events out of school premises and identifying and establishing partnerships with community assets are indeed worth pursuing.

When the school becomes a truly safe space to express and embrace diversity, educators can help migrant families, especially students, to experience connections between their lives and the lives of others. In this way, school leaders can empower migrant families to recognise their own power to make change for a better world.

School leaders need to shift their attention to those for whom the system does not always work and rethink leadership to include frameworks that embrace new mindsets, thus contributing to widespread improvement. School leaders need to pluck up courage and participate in professional preparation programmes that contribute to the empowerment of school cultures that honour and embrace diversity.

Further research needs to be directed at identifying ways and means to support school leaders into further developing their positive characteristics. Developing the future workforce of school leaders is a noble enterprise that stimulates ambitions, motivations, attitudes and behaviours of teachers and indirectly contributes to improved learning for students.

School leaders are inundated with enhanced administrative tasks, notably the handling of financial and human resources, as well as participating in public reporting processes, leaving them with little time to engage in community partnerships. Exonerating school leaders from tasks which can be handled by other professionals would liberate time that could be devoted to extending cooperation with stakeholders, particularly policy makers, urging them to provide multiple viewpoints towards inclusivity. This would further refine their role as school leaders who truly believe in the inclusion of migrant students.

Moreover, newly appointed school leaders must engage in the critical debate surrounding multicultural and migrant education. Opportunities for career advancement within the study area of multicultural and migrant education need to be carefully considered by educational authorities, so as to truly live up to the dream of giving all “children, young people and adults the opportunity to obtain the necessary skills and attitudes to be active citizens and to succeed at work and in society” (MEDE, 2014, p.3).

Footnotes

Declaration of conflicting interests

The author(s) declared no potential conflicts of interest with respect to the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article.

Funding

The author(s) received no financial support for the research, authorship and/or publication of this article.

ORCID iD

Brian Vassallo

Supplemental material

Supplemental material for this article is available online.

Author biography

Brian Vassallo B. Psy (gen), Dip Inc Ed, MSc (UK) taught the first year of primary education at Mariam Albatool School for fourteen consecutive years. In 2014 he was assigned the role of Assistant Head of School, a position which he still occupies. He is a graduate in psychology and in inclusive education from the University of Malta and a masters graduate in educational leadership from the University of Leicester (UK). He is also a visiting lecturer at the University of Malta where he contributes within the masters in access to education, the masters in human rights and democratization of governance, and the diploma in inclusive education. He is the author of numerous research papers published locally and in renowned international journals. His research interests include Multicultural Educational Leadership, and Cultural and Disability Inclusion. Mr Vassallo is also a program development expert with the Institute for Education.

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